Has anyone tried this yet?

terry3122February 3, 2007

Hello to everyone,

I am a newbie to using hypertufa but I am hooked. This forum is definitely inspirational. My first question is I am planning on making a dog house that resembles a Hobbit's home from the movie Lord of the Rings. I want it to visually meld into the backyard... has anyone used wire mesh or something similar to strengthen their tufa with? Also I found a product called Muddle... a hypertufa mix...has anyone used this? If so, where did you purchase it from? Here's their website... www.muddleart.com

I have used wire hardware cloth in making troughs in some of my classes. It works well if the mix is rather "dry" to minimize the tendency for the mix to fall off the vertical walls. I have never use it for anything as large as you plan. Try making a smaller trough first to get the feel for it. I also made a small "Adobe" house using the wire cloth. The gable roof was made in one piece and colored different than the house. The mix used made it appear like adobe without separate brick marks.

I actually use chicken wire to help the tufa have something to cling on to when doing long vertical surfaces, such as the wall on your dog (hobbit) house. You wante a peanut butter consistensy... something that wont run, but will also not crumble.

Also, if you want the "hobbit" house effect, I found out, by accidentally using too much dye, that the dyes from Olde World (particularly terracotta and the bright yellow-rust color) will give you that effect. And it wont wear out with time.

As far as the pre-mix, I don't know if it'll be easier and cheaper to just buy your portland (white), sand and peat on your own. It's not that difficult to mix, although, a doghouse will involve a LOT of mixing.

You're going to want rounded edges, so I'd probably dress an existing structure so you will have something lighter that also requires less tufa

I have played around with hypertufa and concrete sculpture using sytrofoam wrapped in chicken wire as a base. It has held up fine. I don't know how big your dog is (smaller than our Lab I hope), but your hobbit will no doubt need some support other than hypertufa. Maybe a rigid foam board covered with the wire and tufa would work. Good luck!